Category: Steven Ferry

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The Modern Butlers’ Journal, April 2018, Message from the Chairman

Steven Ferry

Message from the Chairman

by Steven Ferry

Before providing some humour for the month, I wanted to welcome Mr. Budi Prihardjanto back into the Institute, as the VP for Asian Operations. Mr. Prihardjanto trained and consulted with us until 2009, when he moved into hotel management, quickly being promoted to General Manager and then of larger properties, and then to Area Manager.

What brings him back to the world of butlers? Not a failure to make a go of it in hospitality management—his current employers are begging him to stay—no, it is the love of the butler world, where he first learned service, the love of training, and the opportunity to make a difference in a wider sphere in helping raise service standards in the industry.

Mr. Prihardjanto is known to, and loved by, many of our members and we look forward to working with him in the years ahead.

And while on the subject of welcoming back industry stalwarts, we would like to extend a welcome to Mr. Frank Mitchell, who after a series of successful and information-rich columns for the MBJ, joins us for another one, this one focused on another of his specialties: staff training.

And now, for a wee bit of humour, wherein someone finally applies some logic that Aristotle would be proud of, to the subject of diets. For Americans who watch what they eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth, after all those conflicting medical studies and diet regimens:

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans;
2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans;
3. Africans drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans;
4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than   Americans;
5. Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

Conclusion: Eat and drink whatever you like. Speaking American English is apparently what kills you.

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, April 2018, The Butlers Speak

Steven FerryThe Butlers Speak

by Steven Ferry

Dealing with Day and Overnight Guests

All butlers surveyed stated that they look after day and overnight guests, although 25% said they rarely were required to do so.

For day guests, duties include answering the call from the main gate, alerting the principals via text message of the imminent arrival, meeting the visitors at the front door, escorting them to the room where the principals wish to meet them. Each provide the standard butler function of asking guests if they want refreshments, or presenting them with refreshments, depending on principal dictates. Refreshments offerred depended upon the time of day, who the visitor was, and what their interaction was with the employer. In one household, the butler offers everyone a beverage of their choice and almost always fresh-baked cookies/biscuits and grapes, and on some occasions, even snacks. Apart from fetching drinks and nibbles, duties include hanging up coats, accepting any gifts on behalf of the principal and relaying them for opening later.

As for any interesting experiences/challenges with day visitors, one butler reported having a “No Shoes” policy for the interior of the home, making the asking of guests to allow him to clean the bottom of their shoes somewhat awkward when they had not been forewarned of the policy. One butler found she had to finesse the question of interruptions—when to clear items or to offer something else to the visitor or principal. She solved this by asking the employer ahead of time and sometimes receiving texted instructions on when to come; she never opened a closed door or approached a business meeting unless so instructed.

One butler found it interesting to see how grateful guests are when he remembers what they like or do not care for. “I still love to see their faces when I hand them something I know they enjoy, yet it has been months since they last visited.”

In terms of advice for handling day guests, the butlers agree on the value of building and consulting a database of the visitor’s name, the room in which the principal met them, refreshments offered or taken, and any other pertinent information, such as gifts brought for the principal. The building (of the database) could come from observing and noting each visit, or information provided by the principals; or from the PA or secretary of the visitor – asking them to be as specific as possible, rather than accepting, “Oh, they eat and drink anything.” Some people are shy and don’t want to be a nuisance, yet often they are somewhat picky when the time comes. The reward for pushing for this information at the front end includes less scrambling and legwork to remedy the lack of preferred items being presented or in stock when the guests arrive. This advance work includes ensuring that the outdoor crew prepares any facilities (pool, volleyball net, horses) the guests are expected to enjoy. And what does it all boil down to? In the immortal words of the housekeeper, played by Helen Mirren, in Gosford Park, “It [the most valuable skill an employee has] is the gift of anticipation: I know when they are hungry and the food is ready. I know when they are tired and the bed is made; sometimes, I know it before they know it themselves.”

One butler mentioned the soft skills needed: “Listen, follow instructions, and try to be involved or invisible, depending on the principal’s earlier instructions. No matter how long you have known a guest, keep it professional: It is not your guest, so no personal information about yourself needs to be discussed, and if asked a question, answer it briefly with a smile and continue with your chores or obligations.”

Duties relating to overnight guests start with briefing by the principals and coordinating with the chef and the rest of the staff; greeting guests on arrival, including taking them and their luggage to their room and orienting them to the key features of the property and their room, giving them their wi-fi password, and even providing photographs and contact information for staff, the house phone number and address; offering to unpack and press any items that may need touch up. And once they have settled in, offering drinks, snacks depending on the time of day, or serving meals, and overall helping to make their stay comfortable, making sure they have everything they need, etc., the goal being to create a home-away-from-home. One butler checks with the guests if they mind her entering their room again, so as to service it at turndown when they are at dinner (straightening the bathroom and bedroom, exchanging linens, turning on the lights, drawing the curtains/ shades, replacing water bottles and managing any other requests that the guest may have had, such as returning or processing laundry or ironing).

Interesting experiences/challenges include servicing random guests the principals may have met in town. And for a female butler, handling weekend guests during golf outings at a second home, where, the more frequently the men were invited, the more some of them would become flirty when drinking. Handling? Keep the response brief and formal, such as “Can I get you another drink, Dr. _____?” It’s best to excuse yourself with these touchy-feely types, saying you need to check on the dog or something, remaining cordial and professional, especially for those who may be chronic in their pursuits.

Advice for overnight guests include having a clear list of guidelines in each guest room of family/house rules and expectations. Another butler, noticing that some of the principal’s visitors were in need of help while ambling from the dining room table to their car, for instance, took a Nursing Assistant course (4 weeks of nights and weekends). The same butler took a bartending course so as to be able to provide guests with a greater variety of specialty beverages—it does not take long to know how the principals like their favorite tipples, but guests bring a wide range of requests that it would be better to be able to accommodate smoothly, instead of fumbling with a cocktail menu book and wondering how one frosts a glass and what kind of salt one uses for a Marguarita.

Lastly, the butlers were asked if they had noticed any changes over the years in the expectations of visitors or guests, and we quote some of their responses:

“Entertaining has become much more relaxed, and less structured (which is a shame) than in years past; and guests expect the best because they are a guest, and yet their attitude and actions sometimes reflect that of a spoiled child” RC

“Because we offer housekeeping, some guests make no effort to keep their bedroom/bathrooms tidy; yet they are a house guest, not a hotel guest. It never seems to amaze me how many people have zero manners these days: They don’t know how to eat and what flatware to eat with. I have made the mistake in the past of laying my table with a couple of courses of flatware already down and then have to stop mid-service to re-set a course. People also can’t serve themselves (during Butler Service). And then there is the constant leaving the table during a six-course dinner to take a call or visit the bathroom, which makes it tough for the chef, too. In what universe does a house guest think it’s okay to manscape (remove bodily hair below the beltline) in the bath tub and not clean up after himself? Or have his shoes polished and not thank anyone? Don’t get me started on not tipping my poor hard-working housekeepers. I don’t care for myself, but for goodness sakes, tip the poor lady for all the extra work she has done for you and your family! The messes she has cleaned up; the clothing she has laundered and pressed so you leave with everything you arrived with, clean and ready to put away when you arrive home. The dozens of pool towels you have messed up throughout your stay. Some guests seem to think we do not notice the once-white now-grey underwear—my floor cloths are whiter, for goodness sakes. It’s all very sad. But they don’t care or have any shame it would seem.” PB

“It seems the younger generations, those in their 20’s and 30’s, show me a more entitled attitude during a visit. I expect teenagers to be sloppy and lazy, but I am sorry to say this attitude is continuing into later years.” LW

“Over the last four decades, people have become less judgmental of the service providers inside the home, more respectful—or maybe I just look at it differently now: For instance, I work hard and an occasional reprimand is expected, but I do not choose my principals anymore, as I have developed a thick skin—life is too short. A chef in a different household was asked by an overnight guest to provide lunch; whereas the household policy calls for breakfast, snacks, and dinner to be served in the home, lunch to be enjoyed out with the hosts. The lady guest berated the chef, saying she never had been a guest anywhere where lunch was not offered. The homeowner stepped in and asked her not to talk to the chef like that, he was just following the house rules. Truthfully, I try not to compare guests’ behavior, but I think the newly rich pile on expectations that are sometimes impossible to meet. I also find they want to tip me, which I kindly refuse. I am already being paid, and tipped for that matter (end-of-year bonus) for the services I provide.” DS

In short, we can say with some truthfulness, that some guests misbehave—maybe more so than in the past, as social graces wilt under the onslaught of the anonymous, virtual world in which most younger people spend the majority of their waking hours. A good reason for butlers to continue to maintain the high ground on manners as role models that are markedly missing in the media to which people are so exposed.

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

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Newsletter Steven Ferry Training

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, In Their Words, April 2018

In Their Words…

How those trained by the Institute’s trainers feel about their experience

“Mr. Vargas proved to be a knowledgeable, patient, and passionate trainer and the feedback from the students couldn’t be better: In fact, they have all been united in their view that both the theory and practice classes were very interesting  and exceeded everyone’s expectations. They have a renewed confidence in their skills and now know which areas they should develop individually, not only at work but also in their personal life. Our team members learned new communication and interpersonal skills that will no doubt allow them to meet every guest’s expectations in wow’ing them. It is indeed a joy to watch how engaged and involved they all are, contributing in excellent ways to the everyday hotel operation, constantly interacting with their teams and briefing them on ways to improve and develop their service delivery. In summary, we are truly honoured to have had Mr. Amer Vargas as a coach. Thank you for inspiring the team!”  TM

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

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Butler history Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, April 2018, The Wisdom of Butlers Past

Steven FerryThe Wisdom from Butlers Past

by Steven Ferry

Part 11

After cleaning shoes, the next most important duty, apparently, of the butler two centuries ago, was cleaning knives and forks. The first of 6.5 pages of instruction is on the need for the proper equipment and the waste that occurs without it. In this case, to clean knives, one should have a smooth wooden board (without knots), preferably covered in leather. One then melts mutton suet (fat from around the kidneys), pours it on the leather, rubs two bricks together over the fat and mixes them together until no fat appears on a knife passed through the mix. Too much brick dust will scratch the knives. With a knife in each hand, not pressing too hard, slide them over the mix. This can be done for carving knives to sharpen them, too, and is preferable to a knife sharpener, which scratches the knives.

As for cleaning forks, fill a small barrel, such as an oyster barrel, with fine gravel, brick dust, or sand, mix it with hay or moss, and dampen. Simply plunge the forks in and out of the mix a few times to remove all stains. There are further instructions.

How were the knives and forks to be stored, ready for use? Rub the steel parts with oil and wipe off after a few hours; or dust with quick lime. Mutton suet or bran are also offered as alternatives, though the latter can promote rust.

These technologies and procedures bring home the reason so many staff were needed to run these large houses: no detergent! No shoe polish; no refrigerators; no electricity, etc. Almost everything had to be made by hand by the staff on site.

One could say that the advances of household tools a century ago allowed the great houses to continue to be serviced despite a steep drop-off in numbers of domestic staff. And today, the same applies to the advent of automation and artificial intelligence. Will this trend continue ad absurdum—to the point where there are NO humans involved in the running of these large households (and businesses and factories, etc.)?

Extracted from the 1823 book, The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, re-published in hardback by Pryor Publications.

You may obtain your discounted copy (with free s&h) by emailing the publisher: Mr. Pryor (alanATpryor-publications.co.uk).

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers Journal, April 2018, Butlers In the Media

Steven Ferry

Butlers in the Media

by Steven Ferry

Robot Butler Steven

It’s ironic that I keep going on about robots and robot butlers, and the name of what was probably one of the first “robot butlers”—dating back to 1986, the same time I was beginning my career as a butler—was called Steven.

Some new apartments in San Francisco offer what they call butler service to differentiate themselves from other apartment buildings. For those unfamiliar with American terminology, an apartment is a rental, as opposed to a condominium, which is owned.

Duties? Weekly cleaning, grocery delivery, organizing closets or pantries, running errands, ordering catering for a dinner party or purchasing tickets—all for an additional fee, of course.

In the software field, we now have a “group butler bot for telegrams;” and a butler for the Trello program.

The ex-butler for the Pope starts his trial for leaking documents; he was arrested almost two years ago and faces the possibility of four years in prison. It really does not pay, Burrell’s notoriety notwithstanding, to break the Professional Butler’s Code of Ethics.

 

 

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, March 2018, Training Path Choices

Steven Ferry

Training Path Choices

by Steven Ferry

Training at the front end of any career, and ongoing until the day we retire, at least, is a given for butlers and household or estate(s) managers today. In the old days, the only training route was on-the-job training and apprenticeship that was hands-on heavy, light on theory, and limited in scope. The results were narrowly focused manual skills and not much in the way of managerial expertise.

Today, we have two additional avenues: bricks-and-mortar butler schools providing anything from 2-8 weeks of training with varying degrees of effectiveness and for prices ranging from a couple of thousand to $15,000. The advantages include working with peers, face-to-face tutorials, and field trips, and often, preferential placement efforts upon graduation.

The other avenue, perhaps more in tune with the digital world in which we live, is online courses. Their weaknesses are the very strengths of the bricks-and-mortar schools; whereas the strengths of online courses include a significantly lower fee (typically $2,000 – $3,000 for study hours on a par with an eight-week residential course); zero costs for travel, room and board; and for those currently in the work force, neither loss of income for the trainee nor interruption of service for the employer during the training. Additionally, because more subjects are covered, the training tends to be deeper, or can certainly be made far deeper by the student taking ancillary courses locally on such as wines, cigars, flower arranging, advanced driving, firearms and security, etc.

An independent survey was conducted recently into preferred training methods, which is well worth reviewing. Key points established were:

Ø  Only about 50% of people feel they have the learning opportunities they need in their work;

Ø  People like to learn at home more than anywhere else;

Ø  If they have a choice between learning on computers, tablets, mobile phones or reading a printed document, they pick a computer. Mobile phones came last;

Ø  The preferred duration for learning is 16-30 minutes, by a very large margin;

Ø  Learning opportunities are critical to job satisfaction.

Furthermore, according to the survey results, people most desire self-paced learning and to put information into practice immediately. Anyone who has done any of the Institute’s online courses knows that’s exactly the way their Institute training was conducted. The courses were designed and written by the Chairman, who has worked for decades as an educator, specializing in cutting-edge education methods, as well as by Professor Ratliff, likewise an educator for decades.

Where an employer is paying for the training (as opposed to self funding), a visit to the estate by Institute personnel at the conclusion of the training can ensure full application of the materials and certainty on the part of the trainee, which are, after all, the ultimate purposes of any training.

Bricks-and-mortar schools and online courses appeal to different groups with different needs, goals, and barriers, so one cannot say that one is better than the other: only that it is a blessing for the profession that we have choices.

Even the old hands-on training on the job is still available in a few stately homes and such as Buckingham Palace for those who want authentic and traditional training. Certainly in combination with the other two forms of training, they are valuable experience and CV/resume builders.

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The Modern Butlers’ Journal, March 2018, Message from the Chairman

Steven Ferry

Message from the Chairman

by Steven Ferry

Another substantial newsletter, so I’ll keep this message short again. As the humor offered in the last message proved popular, here is another to offset all the serious stuff in this month’s MBJ:

Looking for the collective noun for various professions, finds:

  • A Brace of Orthopedists
  • A Joint of Osteopaths
  • A Rash of Dermatologists
  • A Flutter of Cardiologists
  • A Guess of Diagnosticians
  • A Cell of Biologists
  • A Slug of Gardeners
  • A Groan of Punsters
  • An Order of Waiters
  • A Litter of Trashmen… er… Sanitary Engineers
  • A Stack of Librarians
  • A Pen of Writers
  • A Pride of Egotists
  • A Lot of Realtors
  • A Dose of Pharmacists
  • A Fib of Fishermen
  • A Flush of Plumbers
  • A Snap of Photographers

and unhappily,

  • A Sneer of Butlers

If you have any others to offer, we’d love to share them.

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.”

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, March 2018, The Wisdom of Butlers Past

Steven Ferry

The Wisdom from Butlers Past

Part 10

by Steven Ferry

Based upon the refusal by some employers to provide suitable work clothes for dirty chores, and insisting that staff have just one suit for all duties—and then firing them if they turned up dirty to their other work—the author counsels that butlers pick their employers carefully so as to avoid such injustices and indignities. Today, we also vet our employers, but over matters of expected duties, remuneration, and more than anything, making sure there is “chemistry” with the employer and he or she is not a micromanager nor employer from hell, etc.—how low the expectations were of the staff two centuries ago!

“Before going to a new place, therefore, be very particular in stating what you may require, and understanding what you are to have, as no servant ought to take a situation without ascertaining, as nearly as possible, that it is likely to suit him and he to suit it; otherwise he only involves a lady or gentleman in unnecessary trouble or expense, and risks injuring his own character, by appearing to run about from one place to another.”

Extracted from the 1823 book, The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, re-published in hardback by Pryor Publications.

You may obtain your discounted copy (with free s&h) by emailing the publisher: Mr. Pryor (alanATpryor-publications.co.uk).

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.”

 

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers Journal, March 2018, Butlers In the Media

Steven Ferry

Butlers in the Media

by Steven Ferry

Mr. Burrell continues to broadcast himself and his former employer’s private life and communications, claiming, “No-one will ever know what we had, no-one will ever know. It was so private.” Really? Maybe it should have stayed that way?

Here’s a new use of butler in society: a “Limerick Butler,” available in the Conrad in Dublin to personalize a limerick for guests. For anyone unfamiliar with limericks, they are short, Irish poems. And another application, this time by Maserati, of an old theme: the butler as pocket-sized external holder of keys, wallet, and smartphone that can be attached to the“employer’s” belt. And yet another: “IT Butler” for a company that provides e-services and, as with all these other “Something Butlers,” to misquote Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is “…full of marketing and PR, signifying nothing.”

A butler in England was jailed for racking up 14 speeding tickets before the police finally nailed him: he had created a fake identity and address so that he could avoid losing his job for speeds registered as high as 84 mph in a 50 zone.

Did he really think that the police would not notice that the same car, registered in his name, could be driven by the same invented person all over England—who kept on not paying his fines—and not follow up? That they would not notice his fingerprints on the documents returned to them with information that did not add up? Apparently, according to his lawyer, “His work as a butler required his presence in different parts of the country. He had limited time to get there and drove faster than he should.” This same individual was also on parole/on license from prison for firing a gun in the street.

What does this boil down to? Reckless endangerment, for one; an inability to think in sequence/appreciate consequences, and to take action with his employer to remedy his duties so he was not continually in violation of the law; and more-basic-a-failure than not following the law: a lack of a personal moral code. We recommend The Way to Happiness as a basic moral code based on common sense for anyone who is struggling in life.

Robot & Butlers Again

There now exists a virtual house designed to train robot butlers—the future of butler academies, no doubt, in the minds of the robot crowd—training the robots to “slice apples, make beds, and carry drinks in a low-stakes environment [meaning a virtual one, not the real world]… because they’re still clumsy and make tons of mistakes.”

And while on the subject of robots, an article (which pleasantly did not resort to the cliché of “robot butler”) was published, entitled Hoteliers fear robot-run future yet believe AI is key to guest personalization. Isn’t that ever a contradiction in terms? Or is it? Hoteliers decided that “Although robots could never replace genuine hospitality, they can decipher big data to learn about guests faster than humans.” Maybe. That is, after all, why we use guest preference databases. But if artificial intelligence is meant to analyze information and present correct conclusions, then how does one explain the constant failures of security forces around the world with their billions invested in information-gathering and -analysis, in finding actual perpetrators without incorrectly targeting innocents?

“Hoteliers suggested AI could best enhance the guest experience through tailored pricing during the booking process, voice and face recognition upon arrival, and 24/7 customer service during the guests’ stay.”

There is certainly room for technology to enhance service offered—a computerized guest database that can be shared in real time between properties (private estates or hotel chains) will always be more valuable than a hard-copy book. Maybe it would work better if guests were recognized facially and by voice tones and so identified and greeted by name, so they do not have to give it themselves. But at what price to our privacy and ultimately, personal freedoms, does that little convenience come? As for “tailored pricing” during the booking process…it reminds me of the practice by the travel portal, Orbitz, and maybe others, of identifying those users on a Mac, rather than a PC, and increasing the prices quoted for their air travel based on the fact that Mac users tended to be more affluent.

One last foray into the world of robots and AI: According to two Microsoft whizzes, “humans will have robot doubles sporting digital copies of their consciousness in the next twenty years.” However much one might (incorrectly) accuse the editor of being anti-technology (he is not, having written plenty of material for multiple high-technology companies), the notion is a non-starter because the concept of “consciousness” is one that is patently beyond the consciousness of materialists: The idea of anything spiritual is anathema to those who conceive all of life to be composed solely of quantifiable things.

It is possible, of course, to enter data, a long list of information about a person, into a computer and instill it into a robot. One could even program the robot to express an emotion—but not to feel one. If one knew the first thing about emotions, about the spirit, about the mind, and the complexities of life, one would see straight away that robots can mimic, but they can never be. And consciousness comes from being—as in a spiritual being. Sorry, but one cannot write a spiritual being into existence in the real world.

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.”

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, March 2018, The Butlers Speak

Steven Ferry

The Butlers Speak

Job Titles and Duties

by Steven Ferry

Continuing the canvassing of those in our profession for the current realties, this next subject concerns job titles and duties and yielded some interesting results.

Job Title (some had more than one title)

  • Household Manager 40%;
  • PA 40%;
  • Estate Manager 20%;
  • Butler 20%;
  • Valet 20%;
  • Executive Housekeeper 20%.

Basic Duties Assigned

These functions were performed by every respondent:

  • Anything needed by the Principles;
  • Vendor supervision.

These functions were performed by 4-in-every-5 of the respondents:

  • Manage 1-5 properties;
  • PA to the Principal;
  • Supplies monitoring, ordering, and stocking.

These functions were performed by 3-in-every-5 of the respondents:

  • Greeting and looking after guests;
  • HR functions.

These functions were performed by 2-in-every-5 of the respondents:

  • Gift and clothes shopping for principals;
  • Accounting, budget, payroll;
  • Managing Cap Ex projects from concept to completion;
  • Plan and execute/supervise events;
  • Food and beverage service, formal and informal;
  • Bar and cellar management;
  • Housekeeping.

The rest were performed only by 1-in-every-5 of the respondents:

  • Arranging travel for family;
  • Travelling with family;
  • Valeting;
  • Tracking and receiving mail/packages;
  • Answering the phone and the door;
  • Laundry and ironing for guests;
  • Cooking, including menu planning, shopping, and preps;
  • Caring for the dog;
  • Chauffeur;
  • Flower purchase and arranging.

The wide range of duties reflects the change in employer perception and expectations of their butlers/household managers, and naturally, we accommodate their evolving needs.

The work-load varied, with some having a wide range of duties that included housekeeping of 30,000 sq. ft., cooking, looking after guests, managing vendors, etc., while another basically supervised vendors for a couple of smaller properties and looked after a dog. The latter is a good solution for anyone in the profession winding down from a long career and needing a lighter work-load.

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.”